Just a bit of a postscript..... I just buried the chook and was able to have a better look at what had happened. It wasn't a prolapse (i.e out the vent). Her intestines were coming out of a small hole in her abdomen. It was such a massive hernia and the skin was stretched so tightly that I guess it was pretty thin and there wasn't much keeping it all in. Whether she cut herself on something or a chook pecked her or something else happened to cause the hole.....I don't know.

'Bye, Burke, you were a top chook. A great layer at 4 years of age, a vigilant and caring foster mum and a firm but benevolent boss chicken. We'll miss you dearly.

Sorry to hear I had a hen I recently put down that looked just like her, happy enough, laying but decided as I'm moving I couldn't sell her thinking it was something worse. I did a rough look in and it just looked like fat and skin until I got to the intestines, so I suspect it now was hernia too. So thank you for your unfortunate update, if that makes any sense??! Life is all about learning and loving.

Hi I just wanted to say thank you for your post about your sweet chook's hernia. I have dealt with the same thing with my sweet couchin for two years (she is only 2 1/2 years old). I woke up this morning to find the same thing happen to my sweet bonnie. I am on the way to put her down at the vet. I can't do it the other way. She is so special. Thank you for taking the time to post photos and a description about what you went through. It has helped me to get through this and make a decision. many thanks...Kelly

Thank you so much for posting Chook’s photo, Queen Victoria looks just the same, and I’d been thinking it was just her fat, naked tum. She was really ill when she was young (6 months maybe) back in the early summer - impacted crop (I thought) or worse, not wholly sure what it was, but I set up emergency coop 10 and kept her alive with 10 mls of water and olive oil syringed into her beak 4 times a day, scrambled egg off a lolly stick and then magic Nutridrops. She’s had a couple of replapses but never near death like the first time; her eggs are always a slightly flat shape and not always with a shell. But now we know about the hernia everything makes more sense! I would think it was as much the hernia that caused the initial problem but then it might have been laying enormous eggs that caused the hernia - who knows which came first....Q.V. is still strutting her stuff and holding her own, but I think I might spray the red bits with gentian violet spray now that it’s winter and they all have less to eat as I don’t want the others to think she looks like a tasty red berry. Cheers PippaP

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